Optimum best guess age for Cuban Cigars

[monkey66]

Having smoked several 10 year plus aged CC's I am beginning to wonder if this is too old for most sticks. I know there are some that just get better but in my experience not many.

My feeling is all sticks benefit from 2-5 years on them. After 5 years some benefit from a few more years and some start mellowing out to a detrimental point (ie loosing punch, body, vibrancy and complexity).

In my collection I am trying to plan that I have a running supply of 2-5 year old sticks. A few will be older or younger but the target is there. To put this in perspective if I smoke 50 sticks a year then I need a 250 count ageing humi with a rolling stock (of course there will be some issues for the first few years). This isn't intended as an exact art (this is a hobby after all) just a concept.

I am interested on what you guys think about average ageing period so check out the poll and lets see what comes out.

[Lascaux]

In my very limited experience... upmanns can easily age for 10+ years and get better and better

the best partagas ive had have been between 5-10 years. the few lusitanias I had from 97-99 were incredible.

hoyo ive had multiple bad experiences with cigars over 7-8 years, the hoyo DC and epi 1 in question... but ive only tried them aged from 2 different cabs, i had some old band hoyos that were beautiful

the few 7 years+ cohibas ive had ive definitely enjoyed more than more recent.

I havent smoked enough of anything else to give a good opinion!
For that reason I've said 5-10 years. i love the taste of an aged cigar... that incredibly light start and a really subtle evolution, i think i like some of the punch taken out of certain cigars through aging too

[bigbarneyhotdog]

They're all different, smoke 'em if you got 'em

[eggopp]

I cant store them, i just couldnt resist the temptations, ive tried, i end up smoking them

[tippexx]

I'm guessing that if there is an average then it is a variable dependent on the tobacco type and vitola.

Something which interested me earlier this year, and which I think was a Monkey66 'heads-up', was to see a retailer selling off aged cubans as SALE items. It made me think WHY?. My conclusion was that some cigars on reaching ten years or so become 'Vintage' and premium priced whilst others do not, which may have something to do with normal, general desirability although I don't think so. As in this instance, it might be best to follow what retailers do ..... or seek their advice.

[Simon-JG-hr]

I think the problem with 10yo cigars at the moment is that they come from the 1999-2001 period when cigar production was ramped up. The increase in production was over one-third (from 150 million to 200 million plus - a huge increase in cigars made). To achieve this increase there were a lot of less skilled workers involved. Therefore, cigars from those years have a bit of a reputation for being less consistently made than others (that's not to say that they are bad, per se, just that you might get five duff ones in a box rather than one...) The increased production might also explain why there are so many still around.

All of that said... a lot of people report that the ten years of ageing helps to loosen them off a bit (as many were too tight) and make them perfectly acceptable. Indeed, the only cigar I've had from 2000 was quite nice.

[rollzst]

I havent had much experience with cigars aged more than 5 years but i can certainly tell an improvement. I would say 2-5 years is a good time to age for. Improvements are very noticable and i just couldnt resist temotation if i tried to age them for any longer

[daverave999]

The only sticks old enough to consider that I've smoked have been in the 1998-2001 period that Simon mentioned, so I don't feel this would be a true picture.

Something to consider is whether they have been stored adequately while aging. Opinions vary on the best conditions for this, but I'm starting to get the picture that lower humidity and temperature (preferably wrapped) than that for ready-for-smoking storage is preferred. I would be surprised if this is how the vendors commonly used on these forums store them, so if they happen to get old through slow stock movement rather than deliberate aging then you may find buying aged stock a pointless exercise. Buy new and age yourself if you want to guarantee it's been done properly.

Also, your tastes will likely differ from so-called experts, so who is to say how cigars taste best?

[LukeBird]

I'm too impatient....!! So smoke 'em!
I am trying to keep some of the Siglo Vs I bought last year to age though. Think I have around 15 left, so will try and keep some!

[RogMcDodge]

The oldest smokes I have are some Cosaco's from 98 - pretty much all the box so far have been plugged. That may be a one off though.

In my opinion, it takes 2 years for them to really settle down - some 07 Montes are smoking really nice now.

[Robert747]

I know that cigars sold by most merchants up to the 1980's were at least a year or so older than cigars sold today - this was a different era in cigar terms with stock being matured for far longer before being released. So ageing is quite natural really. That said a great cigar is a great cigar no matter what age.

[joeray]

One of the best smokes I've ever had was a 10 year old Hoyo (at the time I smoked it was 10 years old).

[jkim05]

I voted 10+. I prefer well aged cigars, though there are many younger cigars I gladly smoke, I would say for my tastes, nothing beats a really well aged cigar.

[monkey66]

interesting stuff, only one person thinks more that 10 years is a good think on average (of course there are always some exceptions).

so can we conclude that most 'vintage' cigars currently sold by the various vendors en-masse may not be anything more that a crap shoot?

[Jimmeh]

interesting stuff, only one person thinks more that 10 years is a good think on average (of course there are always some exceptions).

so can we conclude that most 'vintage' cigars currently sold by the various vendors en-masse may not be anything more that a crap shoot?

I think some people are taking into account that they dont want to hold on to cigars for over 10 years until they are aged?